Deficit, how do I figure

1lsttyme

I am sure I am eating at a deficit, 1400 calories. I just don't know what that deficit is from. I assume it is from the actual calories my body needs to function. How do I figure that number out?

MinnieInMaine

MFP already figured it out for you based on your personal stats (gender, height, weight, age) and how many pounds you said you wanted to lose per week. FYI, exercise doesn't impact calorie intake on MFP unless you actually log your activity.

TheVirgoddess

If you're using MFP to give you that number, your deficit is built in.

That number comes from how much you told MFP you want to lose, and what you entered as your activity level.

segacs

^ What they said.

If you want to understand it a bit better, MFP is figuring out how many calories your body needs to function based on your gender, height, weight, and stated activity level. It's basing it on two numbers: Your BMR (the calories your body would burn each day just by being alive, i.e. basically in a coma) and your regular daily activity level EXCLUDING workouts. It adds those two numbers together to get the estimated number of calories you would burn on a typical non-workout day.

When you exercise or work out, log it and those calories will get added to your goal on top of that basic estimate.

asciident

If you go to http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/my_goals and look at "Calories burned from normal daily activity" that is the number MFP has estimated based on your responses when you set up your profile. From there it calculates a deficit based on how aggressively you said you wanted to lose weight (listed under "daily calorie deficit") and comes up with your "net calories consumed/day" figure under the nutritional goals header.

1lsttyme

Thanks everyone.